Print may be dying, but art is alive and kicking

I recently asked a group of Chicago curators and artists to help me compile a list of exhibition spaces that weren't receiving any mainstream attention. The overwhelming response to that request was "Wait, there are galleries in Chicago receiving mainstream attention?" It's a tongue-in-cheek riposte to a very sobering reality—visual arts coverage in Chicago is slipping. In a city of three million people, there is not a single full-time art critic. Yes, there are several dedicated and talented freelancers who devote their efforts to art, but no publication willing to make a full-time commitment to them. So what to do? We could wring our hands, lament the decline of culture, the death of print, and on and on and on—but this is Chicago, the city that works. And if there were ever people who understood how to cobble together a gratifying existence from less than ideal means, it's artists. So in the spirit of getting it done, here's a list of local spaces that should be on your radar (after the jump). Look for coverage of them here in the coming weeks and if you have suggestions for artists we should be interviewing, exhibitions we should be covering, etc., let me know. E-mail me, be my Facebook friend, become the third person to follow me on Twitter—whatever works. We can give our thriving arts community the attention it deserves, it's just going to take a little DIY spirit.